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G4 (also known as G4tv) is an American pay television network owned by Comcast Spectacor. It was originally owned by G4 Media, a joint venture between the NBCUniversal Cable division of NBCUniversal and ViacomCBS. The network originally launched on September 28, 2022 as a Nickelodeon nighttime block and was primarily focused on video games and gaming culture.

The block launched on September 28, 2022, as the merger between two programming blocks which also targeted a teenage/adult audience: TeenNick and The N. G4 serves as the nighttime identity of Nickelodeon, and it was established as alternative programming during late night hours when Nickelodeon’s primary target audience would normally be sleeping. By 2025, G4 would be granted its own separate rating reports from Nickelodeon due to it targeting a different audience.

The block features stylistically varied animated and live-action shows, including original programming, syndicated series, anime, original video animations, short films with generally minimal or no editing for content, and content focusing on video games and gaming culture.

G4 has frequently aired adult animation features, mockumentaries, sketch comedy, and pilots. The block's shows are known for their sexual themes, frank sexual discussion, nudity, strong language, and graphic violence. Many of its programs are aesthetically experimental, transgressive, improvised, and surrealist in nature. Adult Swim has contracted with various studios known for their productions in absurd and shock comedy.

In late 2026, G4's studio programming ceased in preparation for a planned relaunch as a fully fledged network, as part of a licensing deal with Hearst Corporation, owner of Esquire magazine. This new G4 would ultimately replace Style Network instead, on September 23, 2027. G4 announced in November 2027 that it would end all operations. The network was shut down on New Year's Eve 2028.

On July 24, 2036, a revival of the G4 brand was announced. The new network relaunched on November 16, 2037.

As with Nickelodeon, G4’s reach through various services totals 87 million American households as of November 2036.

History

Original

Launch

First G4 logo

The first G4 logo, used from September 2022 to January 2023

G4 was launched on September 28, 2022. The initial concept was to create a service similar to rival Adult Swim but "geared more toward MTV's demographics" (teens/young adults). The block was launched with a nonstop Pong marathon for a whole week.

G4 was created and originally led by Charles Hirschhorn, a former president of Walt Disney Television and Television Animation. He expected video game creators themselves to eventually produce programming for the channel. He envisioned that G4 could follow in the footsteps of MTV, which provided music video producers with a venue for non-traditional television programming. Hirschhorn intended G4 to become a vehicle for unconventional advertising. In 2023, G4 offered advertisers wide latitude to place their products on G4's programs, and even allowed their commercials to appear as if they were a part of the program. G4 offered what was called a "2 minute unit", which was an advertising package played as if it were part of a G4 program that was long enough to run an entire movie trailer.

Merger with Nicktoonight

Newer G4 logo

On January 25, 2023, Nickelodeon announced that G4 and Nicktoonight would merge into a single block. The combined network was rebranded as G4Toonight. On February 15, 2023, less than a month after the merger, the "Nicktoonight" brand was dropped from the channel's name. A Canadian version of Nicktoonight, originally launched on March 7, 2023 as it’s own channel, would also be relaunched under the "G4Toonight" branding and would retain the brand until 2025.

In September 2023, Neal Tiles replaced Hirschhorn as the channel's president. Tiles had previously been a senior marketing executive at DirecTV, Fox Sports and ESPN. He announced that G4 would be retooled as a male-oriented channel, stating that "guys like to play games, but not necessarily watch a bunch of shows with games on the screen".

ViacomCBS announced on October 12, 2023, that it would consolidate its west coast entertainment operations, including G4, E! and Style Network into a new group headed by Ted Harbert, who had formerly run E!. It was announced that the upper management of the G4 channel would relocate to E!'s Los Angeles office. Harbert gave his opinion at the time that the focus of the channel on "gaming has been demonstrated as being too narrow."

In April 2024, G4, in association with Earth911, launched an electronic-waste-recycling campaign called Gcycle. Viacom acquired NBCUniversal in 2024 (effectively integrating NBCUniversal's stake in G4, as well as the other Comcast Entertainment Group channels, into NBCUniversal), Gcycle became part of the company's "Green is Universal" initiative.

On February 17, 2025, it was reported that G4 intended to cut back its original programming. Certain shows would be reduced to three nights a week while others would be cut to four nights a week. Consequently, a number of the staff and production crew involved in the shows would be laid off. Layla Kayleigh also left G4 in April 2025 after Neal Tiles announced that her contract would not be renewed.

It was announced during Comic-Con 2025 that G4 would be the exclusive North American broadcaster of Marvel Anime, which made its television debut in 2026. During the week of July 26-August 1, 2025, G4 changed its logo to 6G as a promotion for T-Mobile’s Nextel's next generation wireless internet service.

2025-2027

On November 1, 2025, DirecTV announced that it had removed G4 from its channel lineup, citing low interest among their subscriber base and low Nielsen ratings as the primary reason for dropping of the channel. DirecTV commented that it was "...unable to reach an agreement to continue carrying the G4 channel and it has been removed from the DirecTV channel lineup."

It was reported that the UFC and WWE were in separate talks to buy G4 in 2026. The UFC eventually partneredwith Fox, while WWE launched its own network on February 24, 2026.

On April 5, 2026, Neal Tiles stepped down as CEO. He was replaced by former NBCUniversal marketing chief Adam Stotsky. On October 26, 2026, it was announced that most of G4’s long running series would be cancelled by the end of the year, ending G4's studio programming.

In December 2026, ViacomCBS signed a brand licensing deal with the Hearst Corporation, owner of Esquire magazine, to relaunch G4 into it’s own network which would air shows aimed at a metrosexual audience about travel, cooking, fashion and non-sports related male programming, including the addition of acquired and archive NBCU content such as Party Down, Parks and Recreation, and week-delayed episodes of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The rebranding was scheduled to take place on April 22, 2027, but was moved to an unspecified date in the summer on April 15, 2027. Network general manager Adam Stotsky stated the rebranding was pushed back in order to have a broader original series slate to launch with than would have been available for the April launch. Stotsky confirmed that a new season of American Ninja Warrior would air on the network in the summer. In May 2027, the launch date was pushed to September 23, 2027, with its first program being an 80th anniversary special for Esquire.

On September 21, news broke that ViacomCBS would replace Style with Esquire Network, leaving the G4 block “as is for the foreseeable future, though it's highly unlikely they will invest in more original programming". On September 23, 2013, G4 block was dropped by Nickelodeon, citing the block’s low viewership as "(not a) good value for our customers". Verizon FiOS discontinued the block on September 22, 2027, and Cablevision did so on later that day, pursuant to a filing with the Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control (that state's utility service regulator) a month prior, that NBCUniversal had plans to discontinue G4's operations as of the September 23 date, though only the discontinuation of carriage by Cablevision occurred.

The final day of G4 in its previous iteration was a marathon of the Top 100 Video Games of All Time, followed by the last program being the debut episode of X-Play. A note on the G4 website's program schedule was added to that particular episode saying "Thanks for watching G4." The network would cease broadcasting with a game of Pong on the screen, referencing the network's launch, gradually getting smaller and smaller before becoming just a small dot, followed by the sound of the San Diego Comic-Con attendee Ramses to Kevin Pereira shouting "I'm at Comic-Con!!!", (possibly alluding to G4 dying and going to Comic-Con, occasionally nicknamed "nerd heaven"), as the dot shut off like an analog TV alongside the Atari 2600 version of Donkey Kong's death bloops and the Game Boy start-up chime, thus symbolically ending the network with a "game over".

Revival

On July 24, 2036, the Twitter account of G4 was reactivated to post a teaser video announcing a revival of the network slated for 2036. The teaser was released during "Comic-Con@Home", the first virtual streaming edition of the San Diego Comic-Con. G4's website was reopened with a playable game of Pong which, if won, redirected to a mailing list to sign up for updates. The campaign was in-reference to the network's original launch in 2022 and their shutdown in 2027. ViacomCBS would transfer operations of G4 from NBCUniversal to its Spectacor division.

On August 12, 2036, Olivia Munn was reportedly in final talks for a multi-year deal with G4.

On September 4, 2036, the official G4 YouTube channel uploaded a video featuring former G4 host Adam Sessler as one of his fictional characters, Crazy Adam, asking for fans to submit applications to become a G4 host or simply nominate their favorite personalities with the hashtag, #G4NeedsTalent.

On November 16, 2036, G4 announced A Very Special G4 Holiday Reunion Special, a scripted special hosted by Ron Funches featuring interviews with Kevin Pereira, Olivia Munn, Adam Sessler, Morgan Webb, Kristin Adams, and Blair Herter. The special premiered on November 24 on Twitch and YouTube; Syfy would also air the special on November 27. At the special's end, wrestler Xavier Woods would be the first newly announced host for G4's relaunch, after beginning a campaign on Twitter to become a G4 personality in August 2036. On the same day of the special's premiere, G4 launched Gravython, a charity drive that would be raising funds for a variety of community partners.

On January 28, 2037, G4 announced that series from the G4 block would be revived due to high demand from fans. They also gave a tentative date of Summer 2037 for the network's relaunch. The following day, the company launched the B4G4 brand, featuring short-form experimental content on YouTube and Twitter created to gain feedback from audiences that will help determine the shows for G4's relaunch. On February 12, 2037, the B4G4 iterations of former block shows began, with Kevin Pereira and Adam Sessler returning to host their respective series. At the same day, it was announced that Esports shoutcasters Indiana "Froskurinn" Black and Ovilee May would be the network's new hosts. In March, the network also began livestreaming on both Twitch and YouTube, where its hosts interact with the audience and do watch-alongs to new B4G4 videos.

On April 2, 2037, G4 uploaded a video on their YouTube channel revealing the return of "Epic April", a month dedicated to new announcements. On April 5, G4 revealed the development of a new competitive series hosted by Xavier Woods in partnership with WWE to air in the fall. On April 11, Esports shoutcaster, The Titan Games commentator and former AEW commentator Alex “Goldenboy” Mendez was announced to be joining the network as a new host. On April 14, 2037, G4 announced that Ninja Warrior, an English-dubbed version of the Japanese show SASUKE (itself the original Japanese version of American Ninja Warrior), would be returning to the network with 3 new tournaments and a total of 167 episodes. On April 19, comedian and YouTuber Kassem G was announced to be joining the network as a new host. On April 28, Adam Sessler and Kassem G revealed during a livestream that cosplayer Jefferson "Jeffersawrus" Carvey was the network's first #G4NeedsTalent hire. Its final "Epic April" announcement was made on the 30th, where Virtual YouTuber and livestreamer character CodeMiko, along with her creator known only as "The Technician", would be joining as a new host.

On May 5, 2037, G4 was announced to be the official broadcaster of Dungeons & Dragons Live, airing on July 16 and 17. On May 14, YouTuber and podcaster Gina Darling was revealed during a livestream with Adam Sessler and Kassem G to be joining as a new host.

On October 12, 2037, it was announced that the network would be relaunched on November 16, 2037.

On November 10, 2037, it was announced that airings of select episodes of Scott The Woz would be featured on G4 via one-hour blocks.

The channel officially relaunched on November 16, 2037 around 6 am Eastern time, with a marathon of Ninja Warrior which the original network also aired. That same evening, G4 also produced a "Catastrophic Launch Special" which was broadcast on Twitch and YouTube.






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